THE winemaking community is in shock following an explosion at the Hunter Valley winery of a prominent industry family that killed fifth-generation vigneron Trevor Drayton.

The accident at the Drayton winery in Pokolbin also killed another man and left a promising young winemaker with burns to 80 per cent of his body.

Mr Drayton is understood to have been supervising construction work in the winery’s main plant, when ethanol fumes from stored alcohol were ignited by a welder’s spark. The explosion tore off the roof of the shed about 8.15am.

The bodies of the dead men were discovered behind the winery’s cellar door but remained there last night, as the site was declared structurally unsafe for police to enter.

The explosion has left 27-year-old William Rikard-Bell — an assistant winemaker and rising figure in the Hunter Valley winemaking community — fighting for his life in Sydney’s Concord Hospital.

Mr Rikard-Bell sustained burns to more than 80 per cent of his body, after being engulfed by flames and thrown 20m through the air by the force of the explosion.

Neighbours up to 5km from the vineyard reported hearing the explosion and witnessing a ball of flames rise from the winery.

Owner of the nearby School House cafe and gallery, Damien Griffith, was one of the first people to arrive on scene and called thepolice.

“I heard a big bang; the whole house shook,” he said. “I saw a big fireball on the hill; it was as high as the trees.”

Mr Griffith said that when he made it across to Drayton’s, Mr Rikard-Bell was “in the dam up to his neck in water; he was covering his face”.

“I think he was in shock; he’d been blown through the air,” he said.

Mr Rikard-Bell was airlifted to Newcastle’s John Hunter Hospital before being transferred to the burns unit of Concord Hospital, where he remains in a critical condition.

The Hunter Valley winemaking community was yesterday reeling with shock from the news of 52-year-old Mr Drayton’s death.

Tributes from friends, colleagues and dignitaries poured in for a man described as a Hunter Valley icon and a national champion of thewinemaking industry.

Best mate and fellow winemaker Bruce Tyrrell, the owner of Tyrrell’s wines, was still coming to terms with the news of Mr Drayton’s death yesterday.

“I didn’t expect to wake up this morning and find one of my best mates was dead,” Mr Tyrrell said.

Chief winemaker at nearby McWilliams Mount Pleasant winery Phillip Ryan described Mr Drayton as “a shy, modest, humble man” and “my best mate in the valley”.

Tragedy is all too familiar to the Drayton family, who settled in the Hunter Valley in the 1950s. Trevor Drayton is the third Drayton winemaker in three decades to lose his life in an accident.

In 1994, his uncle, winemaker Reg Drayton, was killed alongside his wife Pam, when their plane — bound for Lord Howe Island — crashed into the ocean.

Another family member, Barry Drayton, drowned while cleaning a tank at his winery almost 30 years ago — a mere six months after his wife Rhonda died of hepatitis.

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